Tulsa, Okla. – July 15, 2015 – The Brady Heights Historic District of Tulsa will host its Historic Home Tour on Sunday, September 27, 2015, from 10:00AM to 5:00PM. The tour includes at least 10 homes in Tulsa’s oldest historic district. Tickets will cost $10 per person 12 years of age and older; a group rate of $25 is available to groups of three people. Guests under 12 years old are free. Tickets can be purchased on site at the tour’s starting point, the Centenary United Methodist Church, at 631 N. Denver Ave. Proceeds will benefit community projects of the Brady Heights Historic District, Inc. (d/b/a Brady Heights Neighborhood Association, Inc.).

New for this year’s tour is the introduction of a design competition open to architects and designers who would like to help envision new construction appropriate to a neighborhood protected by Historic Preservation Overlay Zoning by the Tulsa Preservation Commission. A generous neighbor has volunteered the use of a vacant lot they own in the neighborhood as a blank sheet for designers to work from as they envision future development in a neighborhood rich with history. Entries are due by Saturday, September 12, 2015, and will be judged by a panel of Historic Preservation experts from the Brady Heights Historic District, Inc., American Institute of Architects -- Eastern Oklahoma Chapter, Tulsa Foundation for Architecture, and Home Builders Association of Greater Tulsa. Specific prizes will be determined based on number of entries submitted, but winning designs will be prominently featured during the Historic Home Tour.

Further details about additional attractions as part of this year’s Historic Home Tour will be released between now and the event.

One of the first neighborhoods built outside of downtown Tulsa, the Brady Heights Historic District features homes built between 1900 and 1930, including two homes which were built in 1907 before Oklahoma’s statehood. Oklahoma’s early political, mercantile, oil, spiritual, and social leaders made Brady Heights their home. The varied home styles include styles such as Folk Victorian, Colonial Revival, Craftsman Bungalow, and American Foursquare. The houses of Brady Heights are of a larger scale and more complex design than those of adjacent neighborhoods; bay windows with leaded glass, carriage houses, and broad porches suggest the elegance of earlier days.

Residents have lovingly restored or are in the process of restoring the tour homes and guests will be treated to casual discussions with the homeowners relating the history of their home and the machinations they went through to restore them. Many of the homes still retain original details.

Brady Heights has a spectacular history of rebirth. Suffering from abandonment and crime in the 1960s and 1970s, a renaissance began in the early 1980s when the Brady Heights Historic District was placed on the National Register of Historic Places and the Brady Heights Neighborhood Association, Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, was founded by President Wess Young and his wife Cathryn. One of the most diverse neighborhoods in Tulsa, Brady Heights boasts a collection of families and individuals of all races, income ranges, ages, sexual orientations, and religions. Proud urban pioneers were guaranteed continued historic integrity of their homes and neighborhood when the Brady Heights Historic District was granted the Historic Preservation Overlay Zoning by the City of Tulsa in 1999.

Quick Facts

2015 Brady Heights Historic Home Tour

Sunday, September 27, 2015

10:00AM to 5:00PM

Tickets: Purchased on site at Centenary United Methodist Church, 631 N. Denver Ave.

$10 per person for 12 years of age and older.

$25 per group of three people over 12 years.

Free admission for guests under 12 years of age.

At least ten homes featured on tour, including multiple homes on the National Register of Historic Places.

Design contest using vacant lot in the neighborhood provides an opportunity for designers to share a vision of new construction which fits the context and character of an established historic neighborhood.

Entries due by Saturday, September 12, 2015.

For more information about Brady Heights and the Historic Home Tour, please visit www.bradyheights.org.